Future ethical considerations in platform economy

This chapter explored the future ethical dilemmas in the operation of the platform-based tourism industry focusing extensively from the digital-first angle and highlighting various algorithmic biases and corporate social responsibility issues that may emerge. Also, this chapter addressed the data protection and privacy law management. Furthermore, ethical guidelines and best practices approaches were addressed. The issue of self-regulation and the impact of government intervention were scrutinised with reference to the protection of personal data and tourists’ privacy. Furthermore, this chapter explored the need for authenticity and misinformation in digital tourism which is construed to be an ethical issue was addressed as this relates to the thin line that comes up between reality and representation in digitally operated devices. For example, the tourist’s online glossary representation is often completely different from what tourists usually experience at their destinations. This chapter also explored the current trends and issues in the responsible ethical platform-based tourism. Thus, the United Nations’ (UN) efforts in promoting the responsible tourism were addressed as pivotal to the interests of tourists. In furtherance to the promotion of responsible tourism sector, the UN came up with a sustainable agenda which was launched in 2015 tagged ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs).